natswright

Has anyone noticed just how bad the match making is lately, I feel wargaming need to address this, because 3 times tonight I was placed on really bad teams. See the attached image for the last game I had, despite being quite a reasonable decent player in the Massachusetts, i'm definitely not skilled enough to influence a game to carry a team this bad. Yet its not their fault they have poor stats, they should be matched against similar players so they have a chance to win and improve. Not get soundly beaten by every team they play, so they get so dis-enchanted, they give up on the game. The up tiering is also causing issues, as pretty much the only tier 8 BB in the game, I'm really going to struggle against must ships. Its no better for tier 7 ships that find themselves unable to pin the armour of any higher tier ship, as their 152mm guns can only ping 25mm armour, even ihfe only allows 31mm, still not enough. Then there is over pins, so many these days. I've hit ships full broadside, BB's, cruisers, and what used to be a dev strike turns into 6 OP.. It makes a mockery of having big guns on a battleship Question is, what can be done? Will wargaming listen, make changes? What do you guys think? edit: screenshot removed due to name & shame (REDIT: My mistake.. here's the screenshot)

I've linked my account to twitch, but cant select the port twitch prime? Can anyone help?

I'm just playing the game as normal, but playing ships that contribute towards the objectives. I hope to get to stage 3, but doubt I will. I'm not even half way through the first stage.

Hehe, cant wait, I have to get up super early for this too!!

I'd suggest looking at Royal Navy Cruisers, they teach you a lot about how to play a light cruiser and are just a joy to play! I'd also recommend the Japanese and american cruisers too, all three of these lines have good low tier cruisers. The Italian cruisers are very tricky to play, but very rewarding when you get them right, especially that little tier 4! DD's are more difficult to play, and i'd go for the Japanese line first, although RN and German DD's are a good option. I enjoyed the British and Russian BB's as a good starting point.

Ah, ok, the issue with both those ships is that they have limited counters when used as close support. I've played the Dallas, similar to the cleveland, and would suggest that they are ships that are tricky to use close in. I found that carefully pushing in, keeping guns in range, but, be ready to withdraw, and angle away. A fast cruiser, retreating, while firing is a hard target to hit. Once you have disengaged, check the map, and see where you can push up again to support. Its like a yoyo with being a cruiser, always on the move, taking opportunist shots. Maybe this will help (its a music video, but shows my first game in the Fiji. The British cruiser line is one of the best that teaches you how to play a cruiser!!

Your stats are actually really good, 38k average in a Murmansk is good!! You are struggling with the Furutaka and this is a tricky ship to get to grips with, its strength comes from its speed (36kts with speed signal) and you have to kite in it. It has reasonable armour, but show a sniff of broadside and you're doomed! You play the Atago, which is a similar ship, play them in a similar manor.... I've not played the AL Montpelier, but it seems almost identical to the Cleveland, a deceptively tough little cruiser! I've seen most who play the Cleveland play in a similar way to the Atlanta, as it has high fire arks, so a bit of a camping ship from what i've seen, lobbing shells over islands!

Cruisers are a very utility based unit, by that I mean that they have a bit of all roles in them. Some things I've learned from playing them is that they fall into one of several play styles. Destroyer cap/support Quite a risky play style, as Cruisers are vulnerable, especially early game, however the HE firepower support is invaluable to help your DD's early game. Many have good concealment, so you'll be looking at using ships like the Leander, Fiji, Perth, Atago, Edinburgh and so on. Survival is important, so use Island cover where you can, to block crossfires. If you have smoke and hydro, use them, as you can fire from the safety of a smoke screen. Hydro will give early warning of torpedoes of course, but be aware of the map. Look out for the radar cruisers and make sure you have an escape plan to get out of there. Never over extend in a cruiser, or you will get punished for it. Close support is usually easier with Light cruisers that are nimble and can avoid incoming fire. Later game play/kiting away Some cruisers can play quite well by camping behind islands and spamming HE when a ship comes into range. This is fine, but can limit your contribution to the game, as like a spider, you are waiting to trap a ship that comes into range. The danger is that you get ambushed yourself or spotted via radar or aircraft. Another style of game play is to maximize the usage of priority target. Kite away from the enemy, using island cover to minimize exposure. Lay fire down, HE to set fires, but plunging AP is also effective. If targeted, maneuver to avoid as much damage as possible. The new Italian ships are ideal to practice this as they are very easy to citadel, so you can use them to practice avoiding incoming fire. Torpedoes Mainly, cruisers should deploy them for area denial, or when you get an opportunity to safely fire them. This is because you usually cant stealth fire them, and have to show a lot of broadside to deploy, leaving you vulnerable. There are exceptions, heavy cruisers like the Prinz Eugen have a lot of Bow armour and angled well can bounce 15in shells. So late game you can get up close with some of the heavy cruisers and use those torpedo. Be mindful that if upreared, 16in shells will over match tier 8 cruisers, and 15in shells will over match many too. Conclusion Use the strengths of the chosen cruiser, The Irian has a great fire chance and good gun range, so is a great kiting ship. Its torpedoes have a huge 13.5km range so it can be great for delaying a BB push up a flank. The Fiji or most of the British cruisers are very nimble and have great concealment, plus smoke. Then can provide close support and their AP is deadly against Cruisers and DD's. Hydro makes then good at defending caps too as they make great DD hunters. Heavy cruisers can afford to be a little more aggressive, but still benefit from a kiting style of play. With a cruiser, its generally better to keep moving, be a difficult target to hit. Use that Priority target to avoid incoming fire. Late game a cruiser can afford to push in more aggressively, use your hydro to protect the BB's. You are a true utility ship, and your job is to support both DD's and BB's. Use map awareness to avoid incoming fire and position yourself accordingly on the map. Dont worry about damage early in the game, stay alive, cruisers really come into play later in the game, although there are exceptions. You should always try to support your DD's unless they overextend to the point when you have to retreat. Hope this helps, its what i've learned in the 6 months i've played ships, and only recently has my game play improved, as I changed my cruiser play style! Managed a game the other day in the Perth, hit 85k !! Had another in the Molotov, and managed 95k. Especially with the Molotov i'd have tried to hide behind islands, but this time I kited an pushed in towards the end of the game when I could take full advantage of fewer ships. Even then, I lost map awareness momentarily, and almost got deleted. Fortunately I managed to kite away in time and set 3 fires on the Sinop, burning them down!

Quite the big thread this one! So, A few things I've learned while playing DD's As the game starts, note what ships you are up against, this defines your early strategy. CV and radar? Use caution advancing! Ideally you need an 11 point captain to be effective PT, PM - LS - Superintendent - CE (3 points minimum, with PM or PT and LS) Priority target is very useful in a gunfight with another DD, you can engage if not being targeted by other ships, other than the DD Know when to disengage from what you are doing. Have an escape plan. Use the Mini map, where are the Radar ships, the DD's, does the DD in the same cap as you have hydro? As others have said, a DD spotting on the flank is very handy, you don't always need to immediately secure a cap. I play cruisers a lot too, and use concealment to push in and support friendly DD's, this is very useful, but often only happens in a division Use Premium consumables, that extra 30 seconds on smoke reload can be the difference between survival and sinking! Dont be selfish with your smoke, as well as hiding in it, you can drop it to cover advancing ships, then spot ahead! Above all, remember you are playing with a bunch of random people, things don't always go to plan, so COMMUNICATE!! This list is not exhaustive, but I hope it helps. I'm not the best DD player, there are the hardest class to play I reckon.

Thanks, I never heard of that, but understand what it is now!

On the CV front, try playing a tier III DD with 3, yes 3 CV's a side! I think any game under tier V should have 2 CV's max....

Err, yes, I was bottom tier, and I sank a top tier ship, I fail to see your point? Are you implying the Tirpitz was a poor player and thats the only reason I sank them? I cant really see what point you are making here, I was a lone wolf too?

You know, I had a super fun game the other day, in an Acasta DD. It was my second game in that particular ship and I said in chat that I was new to this DD. The game was brilliant, if I can find the replay, i'll post that too. What happened was that I pushed into the cap with cruiser and BB support and we kept pushing. I dropped smoke to hide our advancing ships, and then spotted beyond that smoke. It worked to great effect with the enemy ships retreating constantly. When they did make a push to defend their cap, I was able to ambush an enemy Tirpitz as it emerged from behind and island. In the end, I didnt do much damage as a DD, about 20k I think, if that, but I did over 50k spotting damage and we won! I think the issue sometimes is players aspire to be top of their team, with maximum damage and team play is not really encouraged with the game mechanics. If a DD is going to spot in the way I did, I have to accept that my damage output is going to be low, especially when I cant stealth torp. So I was opportunist in my use of torpedos, and it payed off. I finished lower mid table, but got a few +1's and compliments in chat! We won of course!

Thanks, do I have to raise a ticket at all, or will the Doubloons just appear in my account in the next 24hrs or so?

Thanks for the info guys, I bought the Genova to review, then literally opened it in a crate an hour later!! Least I can bag the Exeter when I get the 4000 doubloons!! Anyone know when they will be credited?

Won the ship in Italian event, already had her in port, but got no doubloons? Is this a bug?

Seems a common issue!

I may have to open a ticket with wargaming!

Oh, i've had my accounts linked for some time now!

I've been a Prime member for years!

Hiya Thunder, I think people are trying to help here, and I have a little more advice here too. First let me list your top 10 ships by damage and where you have played at least 5 battles. I'll draw your attention to Dreadnought, this is a ship it seems you play well, you have a good win rate and damage output. You're also ok in the Hood, a ship you must like as you play it a lot. What I do see is a lot of premium ships, now there is absolutely no problem buying them. In fact I did this initially on my EU account and it took me longer to learn the game than working through the tech tree ships. You've done well to unlock so many ships after very few battles. You definitely seem to like playing BB's so start maybe looking at Cruisers, this will teach you much about positioning on the map and how to use cover effectively. Below is the top 8 ships from my NA account. I'm using this as its stats based on my current Game play skill level. Like yours, my EU account has a lot of those beginner stats in still, and it will take time to change that. Take the Tier 5 Emerald, my average damage is almost 28k, i'm not far off some of your BB stats at tier 7 and above, in what is essentially a floating citadel. If I make one mistake in the Emerald, i'm toast. This is going to teach you much about the game, especially as a BB player. I love nothing better than to ambush an unsuspecting BB as it sales round the corner of an island and I dump all my torps into it! So I encourage you to put aside your high tier ships for a while and maybe work through one of the light cruiser lines. It looks like you started the British ones as you have the Fiji, go back to those ships, play them some more and see how you get on. Try the Japanese cruisers or German ones too. I do sympathise, bad runs do happen, I was on one until recently, but I just turned the game off for a bit and came back, and won a game (see the attached image)!

Very good points, The Haida is a very tricky ship to play, you have to be super aggressive and it will certainly take more battles to learn how to play her. I've played 7 battles and am distinctly average in the ship, in fact below average. She plays very different to other DD's so it will take time for me to improve. I've found that playing the lower tier DD's is great for improving my gunnery accuracy. I like the ship and love learning the differing styles of play. So yes, do try again, but you need many battles to get good at a ship! I recently started British cruisers, and its helped me no end, look at this after just 13 battles!

I don't disagree that there are fewer players over 60% win rate with a high battle count, but there will be many more between 50 and 60%. You may find that with updated match making, the average game of 12v12 might have 1- 2 players above 60%, 3 - 4 players around 50 - 60% win rate, the remainder are sub 50% win rate. Better match making could work and I dont think it will affect the 60% unicorn players adversely.

I can see this being an issue, the player base is like a pyramid, far more noob players than great players, however matchmaking could still be improved. Each team could have a balanced mix of beginner and experienced players. I think the problems occur when the match making puts far more experienced and good players on one side and beginners on the other side. This creates those frustrating one sided games. Each team should be a mini Pyramid of skill, with a few great players, some average players and some beginners. The league system is actually an interesting idea, but if as you suggest, there are fewer skilled players, the idea would not work.

Oooh, interesting idea.....